Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges

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οὐ ADHERESCENT

[*] 2691. οὐ adherescent (or privative) placed before a verb (or other single word) not merely negatives the meaning of the simple verb but gives it an opposite meaning, the two expressing a single negative idea; as οὔ φημι I deny, I refuse (not I say not). οὔ φημι is preferred to φημὶ οὐ as nego is preferred to aio non.

[*] 2692. Adherescent οὐ is especially common with verbs of saying or thinking, but occurs also with many verbs of will or desire. In such cases οὐ goes closely with the leading verb, forming a quasi- compound; whereas it belongs in sense to a following infinitive if an infinitive depends on the leading verb. In Latin actual composition has taken place in nego, nescio, nequeo, nolo.

““οὐκ ἔφη ἰέναι” he refused to go” X. A. 1.3.8, οὔ φα_σιν εἶναι ἄλλην ὁδόν they say that there is no other road 4. 1. 21 (cp. φῂς ἢ οὔ; yes or no? P. A. 27d), τίνας δ᾽ οὐκ ᾤετο δεῖν λέγειν; who were those whom he thought ought not to speak? Aes. 1.28, ““ἃ οὐκ ἐᾶτε ἡμᾶς . . . ποιεῖν” what you forbid us to do” X. C. 1.3.10, ““οὐκ ἀξιοῖ . . . φεύγοντα τι_μωρεῖσθαι” he said that it was not right to avenge himself on an exile” T. 1.136.

a. So with οὔ φημι and οὐ φάσκω deny, refuse ( = ἀπαρνοῦμαι), οὐκ οἴομαι, οὐ νομίζω, οὐ δοκῶ, οὐκ ἐῶ and οὐ κελεύω forbid (veto), οὐκ ἀξιῶ regard as unworthy, do not expect that, refuse, οὐχ ὑπισχνοῦμαι refuse, οὐ προσποιοῦμαι dissimulo, οὐ συμβουλεύω dissuade, advise not to, οὐκ ἐθέλω am unwilling, οὐκ ἐπαινῶ disapprove. This association often persists in participles, as οὐκ ἐῶν, οὐκ ἐθέλων. Homer has οὔ φημι, φημὶ οὐ, and οὔ φημι οὐ.

[*] 2693. οὐ with the principal verb may be equivalent in sense to μή with a dependent infinitive; as οὐ συμβουλεύων Ξέρξῃ στρατεύεσθαι ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα advising Xerxes not to march against Greece ( = συμβουλεύων μὴ στρατεύεσθαι) Hdt. 7.46.

[*] 2694. Analogous to this use with verbs is the use of οὐ with adjectives and adverbs.

οὐκ ὀλίγοι ῀ πολλοί, οὐκ ἐλάχιστος ῀ μέγιστος, οὐχ ἧττον ῀ μᾶλλον, οὐχ ἥκιστα ῀ μάλιστα, οὐ καλῶς basely, οὐκ ἀφανής famous, οὐκ εἰκότως unreasonably, οὐ περὶ βραχέων on important matters (cp. 2690 a), regularly οὐ πάνυ not at all, as οὐ πάνυ χαλεπόν easy.

[*] 2695. The origin of adherescent οὐ is to be found partly in the unwillingness of the early language to use the negative particle with the infinitive, partly in the preference for a negative rather than a positive assertion, and to the disinclination to make a strong positive statement (litotes, as in some of the cases of 2694), and partly in the absence of negative compounds, the development of which in adjectives and participles (2071 a) was in turn restricted by the use of adherescent οὐ.

[*] 2696. Adherescent οὐ is often found in a protasis with εἰ and in other constructions where we expect μή.

εἰ δ᾽ ἀποστῆναι Ἀθηναίων οὐκ ἠθελήσαμεν . . ., οὐκ ἠδικοῦμεν but if we refused to revolt from the Athenians, we were not doing wrong T. 3.55, ““εἰ οὐκ ἐᾷς” if thou forbiddest” S. Aj. 1131 ( = εἰ κωλύ_εις), εἰ μὴ Πρόξενον οὐχ ὑπεδέξαντο, ἐσώθησαν ἄν if it had not been that they did not receive Proxenus, they would have been saved D. 19.74, ““εἰ μὲν οὐ πολλοὶ ἦσαν” if they were few” L. 13.62 (emended by some to οὖν μή). ἐὰ_ν οὐ is rare, as ““ἐά_ν τε οὐ φῆτε ἐά_ν τε φῆτε” both if you deny it and if you admit it” P. A. 25b (cp. L. 13.76, D. 26.24).

[*] 2697. But μή often does not yield to οὐ, as ““ἄ_ντ᾽ ἐγὼ φῶ ἄ_ν τε μὴ φῶ” both if I assent and if I do not” D. 21.205, ““οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως φῶ τοῦτο καὶ μὴ φῶ” I know not how I shall say this and not say it” E. I. A. 643, ἐὰ_ν μὴ . . . ἐᾶτε D. 16.12, and in many cases where μή goes closely with the following word, as ““εἰ ἐδίδου κρίσιν καὶ μὴ ἀφῃρεῖτο” if he were granting a trial and not taking it away” D. 23.91.